Archive for the 'experiments' Category

If you end up with a lipstick that’s too light or too dark do you confine it to the dark, forgotten reaches of your makeup storage unit, or do you attempt to make it work for you by blending it with other shades? I hate to see things go to waste so I definitely fall into the latter category.

While I loved my recent YSL Rouge Volupte lipstick acquisition, the shade was just too light for me to wear on its own, so I decided to show you what it looks like blended with a darker shade under it.

Although I had a lot of fun pressing my MAC pigments into eyeshadows, I know haven’t been taking full advantage of their versatility, and so in the next few weeks I’m determined to find as many different uses for them as I can.

Use #1: Gorgeous Pressed Eyeshadows and Blushes!!

Use #2: Luminizer/Hydrator

See the gorgeous swirls of pigment?

I transferred some of my MAC Fix+ into a small spray bottle, spooned in some Vanilla pigment, shook and voila, glow in a bottle! I’m loving this since the MAC Fix+ was just sitting on my vanity, wasting away from neglect. Now I have a refreshing midday spritzer that also gives my skin a subtle dewy glow. I’ve also mixed some pigment into my Shu Uemura Depsea spray (which is MUCH better than MAC Fix+)!

Use #3: Gloss Revamper

My Dior Ultra-Gloss Reflect in Cotton petal (247) hadn’t been getting much use because the color, while pretty, was just too sheer on me. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands today by adding some Pink Pearl pigment to it.

Before (pretty milky pink):

After:

That’s all I had time for today-hopefully more to come at some point in the future! 🙂

It’s now 1:58 AM, but since I’m having trouble sleeping I thought I’d conduct a little pigment-pressing experiment. I had some empty eyeshadow pans as well as the remnants of random mineral shadow samples and MAC pigments and L’Oreal loose shadows lying around, so I though I’d try pressing all these different types of powders to see what’s pressable and what isn’t 🙂

So far I’ve mixed up a few Lumiere mineral shadows, a L’Oreal HIP pigment, and a MAC pigment. They’re now sitting in the pans, and I’ll be pressing them in the morning. Results to be posted in the AM!

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So it’s now morning! Well later in the morning than it was when I started pressing my shadows. How cool do my new pressed shadows looking in my mini MAC palette?! I’d have to say I’m feeling very pleased with myself this morning 🙂

I’ll be doing a more in-depth post on pressing MAC pigments in a few days, so no worries if you’ve never done it before!

As for the results:

The two Lumiere mineral eyeshadows I pressed are a huge mess! They look fine enough until I run a brush across the top-then it’s a crumbly dust explosion. Loose shadow clouds all over the place! I also inhaled a good bit of powder and choked Mineral shadows definitely need some sort of binder to hold them together (glycerin or the binding liquids you can find online).

The MAC pigment I pressed of course turned out absolutely beautifully! It was the easiest to mix up, consistency-wise, and it pressed to a much smoother finish than the other shadows (see the beautiful cross-hatch from the denim I used to press it above?). Overall I’d say I’ll probably be sticking to pressing MAC pigments in the future!

I also had a L’Oreal HIP pigment in a lovely blue that I never used because I found the packaging to be cumbersome, so decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try pressing it. I know a lot of people have been curious as to whether pressing works for the HIP pigments, and I’m here to say that it does! The mixture was a bit lumpier than the MAC pigment, and it actually didn’t look like it was going to dry properly, but once pressed it makes a nice solid eyeshadow. So if you’ve been considering pressing your HIP pigments but have been afraid to do so, I’d definitely go for it! Although I have to warn you, the pressing process ate through more than half my tiny little container of pigment!

I hope you found this pigment and eyeshadow pressing to be helpful! I’d love to hear about your pressing experiments in the comments!